How to become a hugely successful independant game developer

"My son Kurd...He's a real deadbeat. I can't get him to do nothin'. He just sits around playing them dern killing games all day."

     -- Bud Liquer


Steps to becoming a semi successful independent game developer:

1. Get your rich uncle to fund your company.

2. Hire a whole bunch of people to work for you.

3. Learn how to dial a phone.

4. Sit on the beach and command your minions from the cell phone your uncle bought you.

Say lots of things like "work harder", and "start over" to make sure your employees toe the line.

5. Wait until your minions finish your game.

6. Repeat step 3.


That's one way of doing it, if you can, I'd highly suggest taking that route. But for those of us who either don't have rich uncles or have rich uncles tell us 'no', this is the 'real' way. Well, at least it's the way I did it.

Real steps to becoming a hugely somewhat successful independent game developer:

(Before I get to the 'real' steps, I should preface that this is just one way. There might be many other ways, who knows.)

1. As a child, draw every free second you have, dreaming of one day becoming a Disney animator.

2. Also, as a kid, learn how to program on your Dad's Commodore 64.

This includes reading your Dad's book on assembly from cover to cover even though you don't really understand what about half of the words mean.

Note: You'll have to beg him to bring it home from work every day. Be patient. He'll forget for weeks even though you bother him about it every day, and NO, you can't learn it from the internet. The internet doesn't exist yet.

3. Fall in love with games. Play everything you can get your hands on. Get in fights at arcades because you lost a round of Mortal Kombat 2 or Street Fighter 2.

Also, it would help to solidify your passion if you threw your best friend through his mom's wall for beating you at a fighting game. Don't worry, he'll tell his mom he tripped and fell through the wall to make that big hole. Yes, that really happened, and it could happen to you. (I’m so sorry Sister Donaldson.)

4. Make lots of little mini demos, animations, mini games, etc.

This will refine your skills, and plus, your mom will tell you how talented you are, and that always feels good.

5. Decide you want to make a full game your last year in high-school.

Sure rip off your favorite game. Pick something small very do-able scope and be ready to get busy. It's gonna be a LOT of work.

Get your brother to help with the art work. If he stops helping you, head-butt him! This is extremely effective as long as you're in high school. (Sam, I'm really sorry about that head-butt. By the way, my little bro, Sam, is now a professional artist who works at Disney. Check out his incredible tasty art http://artsammich.blogspot.com/)

Note: I have since ceased the practice dealing head-butts to fix scheduling problems as it causes issues with employee morale.

6. Try to sell your game on a BBS. Is that what they were called? Bulletin Boards? Again, this was a little before the internet was around.

7. Get a job using your full game as your portfolio?

Well, your little brother will probably go get a job using your game as his portfolio first. But you'll be like "Hey, I made that game WAY more than he did!" So you'll go the company and tell them so. They'll be like, "Well, then welcome aboard!"

8. Work for various gaming companies for 5 years

Don't ditch people in the middle of a project. That's like number one game developer secret ninja oath code. "Never leave a team behind!"

9. Quit and decide to go off on your own.

Yes, this is a hard thing to do. I had to pretend I was dead to let go of my responsibilities and desire for a paycheck. Here's the thought process. If I were dead, they wouldn't give me a pay check anymore, and I'd be fine. If I just pretend I'm dead, i.e. quit driving my car, stop all social engagements, quit eating, etc. I'll probably at least be almost fine.

Note: It's OK to mooch off of roommates during this stage. You can't really not eat. But you CAN only eat mac and cheese and ramen.

10. Work like crazy to finish a game.

11. Get the game done, and watch as it doesn't sell.

12. Go get a job again, work for another 5-6 years for some other companies. Meanwhile, work every spare second you have on your engine and other games. I know they're making you crunch again. I don't care if you've worked a 14 hour day at work and you don't want to work anymore. Go home, turn your computer on, and at least do something. Pretend that you're in prison and you're using a spoon to dig through a 10 foot thick wall. That exactly what it feels like most of the time, but if you keep digging you might eventually get there. Right? Stay positive. But mostly, work on it every day!

13. Look for a golden opportunity to turn your hard work and dreams into reality. Then, when it comes, quit your job again and put everything into this golden opportunity.

14. Watch your game sell for once. Hooray!

15. Take 4 years to make another game putting all of your royalties back into your new game. You'll be really proud of this game and you'll have all the highest hopes in the world for it, but when it releases you'll wake up and realize that the market has changed horribly, and you'll feel like everything and everyone has left you behind.

This is where I am right now. I'm trying to figure out the next step. Could it be this?

16. Go back and repeat step 12

Note: During step 13 you may have to come up with a different motivation to quit as your spouse will probably not be ok with you "fake dying" and eating ramen and mac & cheese.

Alright, I've had my fun. Now for the juicy Killer Kenn art asset. This here's Kurd Liquer. As stated, he's a deadbeat who sits around playing them dern killin' games all day.